Perfect plants

I've bought many plants over the years, particularly in the early years of gardening when I tried to stuff the garden full of anything and everything. These are a few of my abiding favourites.

Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'

Discussed at length on a separate page. See Dahlias - particularly 'The Bishop'.

Euphorbia mellifera

This plant was given to me by a kind friend some years ago. The flowers are small and some might call them insignificant, but they have an intriguing honey-like scent. The leaves are a lovely fresh green, with a red tinge to the edges, and as they're held on tall stems, the plant has a lush and statuesque appearance.
Photos of Euphorbia mellifera

Garrya elliptica

In the cold dark days of winter we often think we want flowers to brighten up the garden. But so few plants flower in a generous and exuberant way at this time of year, and green things seem better suited. The short stubby catkin-like flowers appear first in late summer, then lengthen slowly over the autumn and the grim days of winter, so that by late winter they're wonderfully fluid tassels, swaying in the slightest breeze.
Photos of Garrya elliptica

Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty'

Flowering exuberantly from summer into autumn, in a rich red-orange haze of loveliness.
Photo of Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty'

Lilium regale, and Lilium 'Star Gazer'

Scented lilies in pots seem perfect for a small walled town garden. The enclosed space holds the scent. Aside from the perfume, they are of course showy and dramatic flowers, the kind of thing you need in a small garden where you can't rely on banks of perennials in vast herbaceous borders for impact.
Photo of Lily 'Star Gazer

Viburnum tinus 'Gwenllian'

This shrub flowers from late autumn, for months, and is still flowering in the spring. Alongside its clusters of small pinkish-white flowers are the most beautiful blue berries, which it also carries through the winter. Because of this impressive long-lasting display, I'm never sure when to prune it, and indeed barely prune it at all, leaving it to do its thing, on the sunny wall, beneath the rowan tree.
Photos of Viburnum tinus 'Gwenllian'